1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal processing system comprising a plurality of signal processors interconnected through a network, one of the signal processors being provided with a reconfigurable circuit. The present invention is particularly useful for application to automotive vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,069 and Japanese Patent Publication 2000-81991, it is known to use a reconfigurable circuit of programmable logic devices to build an electronic circuit according to downloaded data that describes the hardware of the circuit. In the prior art systems, there is provided a spare unit that comprises a reconfigurable circuit in addition to multiple signal processors each performing an individual circuit function. When one of the signal processors fails, the spare unit is reconfigured to build a substitute circuit to implement part or whole of the failed processor. Self-healing function and fail-safe function are realized in this manner. During the time a circuit reconfiguration proceeds, the failed unit is configured out of the system.
Since the configuration of a substitute circuit in the reconfigurable circuit begins in response to the occurrence of a failure, the prior art system has to wait a long time to recover from the failure until the substitute circuit can be put to use.
Therefore, a need exists to provide a signal processing system capable of recovering from failure in a short period of time.